1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates recycling of refuse and, more particularly, is concerned with a manually-operated refuse compactor apparatus employing parallel crushing platens.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, there has been growing interest in recycling much of the ordinary household refuse as an alternative to its disposal in landfills. The effective recycling of merely a few types of household items such as tin cans, beverage cans, plastic milk jugs and small cardboard boxes would take care of a large proportion of the total refuse. However, success of any recycling program depends greatly upon devising acceptable means and methods which people can use to effectively crush and compact these items to reduce the amount of space required for temporary storage and transport of them to a recycling drop off or collection location.
Many compacting devices designed to crush cans are known in the prior patent art. Representative examples of prior art can crushing devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,242 to Willis, U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,397 to Modes, U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,351 to Ader, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,606,266 to Hyman, Sr. While these prior art devices may function reasonably well in carrying out the applications for which they were designed, they were designed for compacting too limited a range of products, namely, cylindrical cans of various sizes. Therefore, these devices fail to accommodate a sufficiently wide range of household items, such as described above, in order to provide a sufficiently effective and versatile means for compacting items for recycling.
Automatic trash compactors capable of compacting a wide variety of typical household items are known in the prior art. However, many people find purchase of these devices difficult to justify in view of their high cost, considering that the devices are merely going to be used for the purpose of reducing the size of items to be discarded.
Consequently, a need exists for a device which is designed more appropriately and cost-effectively in light of its intended use while still being easy to operate and effective in carrying out its intended function.